


A Mother's Love

by meg_0841



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Story, Mother-Daughter Relationship, s7e17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 22:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14680866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meg_0841/pseuds/meg_0841
Summary: What if Nick didn't learn about Chad when he has Henry tied up? What if instead, he learned about the one person Zelena loves most- Robin. A little re-write of "Chosen" with Robin being the one Nick takes instead of having Chad fly in as bait.





	A Mother's Love

“What changed?” Henry asked Nick after all the talk of how their fairy tale versions went on adventures and were such good friends.  
“Your family arrived. And I know you think your mom and aunt are good witches but Henry, there’s no such thing as a ‘good witch’!” Nick sounded so annoyed that Henry couldn’t grasp this simple concept. “What kind of good witch burns a child?”  
“Who burned you Nick? Who was the witch?”  
Nick crouched in front of Henry, his eyebrows scrunched together. “You haven’t figured it out? It’s your aunt, Zelena.”  
“If all this is true, why didn’t you do something in the forest?! Why didn’t you talk to me about it then?” Henry yelled, frustrated with all this talk of fairytales and different identities.  
“In your mind Henry, people can change. Even if someone was absolutely rotten in their past, they could find forgiveness and change. If I told you that your aunt had left me and Gretel in that house and burned me-"  
“I would tell you that you were wrong!” Henry cried. “I would tell you what I’m telling you now. Kelly, or Zelena, might have hurt you when you were young but she’s not that person anymore. She’s changed her life; she has a daughter and nobody could love someone as much as I’ve seen her love Margot unless they were good.”  
Nick sat back on his heels after Henry’s outburst and a smile slowly formed on his face. “Henry, old friend,” he said with a slap to Henry’s knee, “you just gave me the information I needed to make things even between me and Zelena. If I’d known back in the forest, I would have probably done this a lot sooner.”  
Henry racked his brain for anything he said that could have made Nick seem this happy. All he said was Kelly wasn’t the same anymore and that she had- Henry looked at Nick who was busy packing up all the things he had been using while killing the others he called witches. “Nick no! You can’t do that. You have to leave her alone.”  
“Sorry Henry,” Nick said coming back around to where Henry was tied up. “This is what needs to happen. And I’ve been tied up enough times with you to know you’d get yourself out of those bindings soon so…I’m sorry pal.” With that, Nick brought the hilt of a knife down on the side of Henry’s head, knocking him out. Nick placed the knife in the back of his jeans than grabbed his briefcase and walked out the door.

Zelena was waiting in Regina’s bar, a glass of wine in her hand and a baseball bat at her feet. If Nick- Hansel she reminded herself- wanted to come after her, Zelena was going to be ready for him. Thankfully she had convinced Rogers to keep Margot at the police station for the evening and had convinced Regina to leave with Lucy for a Henry emergency. It was just her, her wine, trusty bat, and hopefully soon a psychotic witch killer. Zelena was just ready to take a sip of her wine when her phone’s screen lit up and vibrated frantically on the coffee table. Setting her glass down, a smile formed when she saw Robin’s face across her screen. While it still hurt that she had to call her Margot, she realized she didn’t mind what the name was as long as she had her daughter there with her.  
“Hey sweetie. How’s Rogers treating you down at the station?”  
“MOM!” Zelena shot straight up at her daughter’s scared voice before she heard a rustling and mumbles over the line.  
“Margot? Dear answer me, what’s going on?”  
“Wow, Henry wasn’t kidding! You almost sound like you care.” Zelena’s face drained of color at Nick’s voice coming over her daughter’s phone.  
“What have you done to Margot?” Zelena hissed. “If you have laid so much as a finger to my daughter Nick-"  
“And there’s the wicked witch I know. Breathing out threats, willing to harm whoever gets in her way.”  
“You took my daughter! Of course I’m going to do what it takes to keep her safe!” Zelena had started to pace the length of the bar, one hand keeping the phone, her lifeline to Margot, to her ear, the other running through her hair trying to calm her nerves.  
Laughter came through the phone before Nick spoke again. “Man, to hear you speak about wanting to keep a child safe is so foreign. I’m amazed by how this one’s grown up being raised by someone so wicked.”  
“We could keep this back and forth going all night, you spoilt child, but the fact still remains: you just crossed a line by taking Margot. Now there is going to be hell to pay.”  
“Keep the threats coming witch. Cause like you said, I have something that is special to you and I might not be able to control my temper.” There was a squeak and more rustling over the line that stopped Zelena cold in her tracks.  
“Don’t you hurt her!” Zelena called into the phone, her hand going to the bar counter to steady herself. “She doesn’t need to be a part of this. It was between you and me all those years ago, so let’s keep it that way.”  
Silence was her only reply and when she pulled the phone from her ear, she saw that Nick must have hung up on her. Zelena clutched her phone in her hand and grabbing a spare whiskey glass from the counter threw it at the wall. Her satisfaction at seeing it shatter was short lived when Regina’s voice sounded behind her. “Hey, what is going on here?”  
Zelena knew facing Regina would cause the tears to fall so she busied herself with finding the broom to sweep up the broken glass. “Nothing. Just frustrated that Nick hasn’t shown up to kill me yet. Did you figure things out with Lucy?”  
Regina recognized deflection when it was in front of her but decided not to completely press the matter. “Yeah, Jacinda apparently got a text from him about his flight to New York. I had to go play supportive friend by taking Lucy out for ice cream so her mom could talk with Sabine.”  
“Well, I’m glad you got to spend some time with Lucy.”  
“Yeah, now why don’t you really tell me what’s going-" Regina’s phone decided at this time to go off causing her to cut off her sentence. “It’s Lucy. Give me a minute.” As Regina talked with Lucy, Zelena received a text message from Margot’s phone.  
Make sure your alone. Don’t need your sister around to cause trouble.  
Zelena was trying to come up with an excuse to get Regina out of the bar, when it seemed that was already taken care of for her. Regina hung up and walked back over to Zelena, laying a hand on her shoulder.  
“Hey, apparently Henry never got on that plane to New York. Rogers just found him tied up in Nick’s apartment. I’m going back over to Jacinda’s to make sure he’s alright. Will you be fine without me?”  
Zelena plastered a smile to her face before walking over to the bat still leaning on the couch. Picking it up, she held in against her shoulder, “I don’t think Nick will know what’s going to hit him.”  
As she walked Regina to the door and gave instructions to ask after Henry for her, Zelena heard a small break from the backroom like a bottle falling from a shelf. Once Regina was gone and the door closed back up, she made her way to the storage room, bat raised ready to strike. Except waiting in that room was Margot, tied to a chair with a cloth around her mouth. Zelena dropped the bat in her rush to her daughter and removed the gag before resting her hands on her daughter’s checks.  
“Oh darling. Are you alright? Did he hurt you in…” Zelena’s sentence trailed when she noticed the small trickle of blood that had dried on Margot’s neck. “He cut you,” she hissed under her breath.  
“Mom, mom I’m fine. It was just a surprise reflex when I felt the blade against my skin. Now can we get out of here before he returns.”  
The slamming of the metal door to the room caused Zelena to spin around before stepping in front of Margot. Nick stood there with a knife in his hands, looking towards the two women in the corner. “I don’t think you’re going to be able to go anywhere Margot. At least not until your mom and I finish some business.”  
“Don’t you talk to her, you monster,” Zelena stated drawing herself to her full height.  
Nick let out a boisterous laugh before moving slowly towards her. “I’m the monster? You left my sister and I to die, had the sense to burn me, and yet I’m the monster.” Nick glanced around Zelena to get a look at Margot. “Not the mother you thought she was, is she? Bet she didn’t tell you all the things she did back in the day?”  
“I know enough!” Margot snapped back. “She’s the most kind, loving woman I know. And you can take your psychotic delusions and stick them-"  
“Margot!” Zelena snapped, cutting her daughter off before she angered Nick. Who knows what would set him off to kill someone but it was not going to happen to Margot.  
“Man,” Nick seemed amused more than angry. “I didn’t see it at first, but she really does take after you. The same snarky comments and the need to offer threats.”  
“Yeah well, what do you expect from being raised by a single mother?” Zelena quirk an eyebrow. “She picked up a few good habits, though I like to think she takes after her father more than myself.”  
“I almost feel bad then for being the one to make her an orphan, but you made me an only child when Gretel went looking to find magic so she wouldn’t be weak ever again.” Nick came after Zelena causing her to turn so the action would move away from Margot. The scuffle didn’t last long before Nick had Zelena backed up against the closed door, knife posed to strike. Zelena was ready for it to come, until Nick dropped to the floor and Margot stood behind him, the forgotten bat in her hands.  
“How did you get out of those ropes?” Zelena said as she stepped around to hug her daughter.  
“Please, the man used a simple double knot like he was tying his shoes. If he really wanted to make it hard for me to undo it, he should have tied my hands individually to the sides of the chair.” Margot stepped out of her mom’s arms and grabbed the rope she had been tied with and quickly bound Nick’s hands together in a square knot. “Or this knot would have worked just as well. Though I still could have gotten out. It just would have taken longer and I don’t think you were going to last much longer.”

After Rogers had called Zelena, frantic that Margot was no longer at the station and then hearing that she was at the bar and Nick was tied up in the cellar, Zelena sat Margot down on the couch to take a closer look at the wound on her neck.  
“How did this even happen?” Zelena’s initial emotion of fear was starting to wane into anger that Margot had even been taken. “You were to be in the station with Rogers!”  
Margot grabbed her mom’s hands to keep them from rubbing at her neck. “Rogers got a lead on his case. He told me to stay put and Weaver would be back soon, but I left. I…” Margot blushed at the reason she wanted to leave, turning her head not to look at her mom. “Anyways, as I was leaving, I passed an alleyway and next thing I knew, I felt this blade against my throat. I jerked so quickly, I nicked myself. The guy told me not to scream and then got me in his car. He kept talking about you and this whole wicked witch business.”  
Zelena looked at the her clasped hands around her daughter's and squeezed them in either comfort or reassurance that Margot was okay, she wasn’t sure which. “Margot, honey, I need to tell you some things.”  
“Mom, it’s okay. I already know everything.” Margot softly said. “It’s like I told that Nick guy, I know what I need to about you. And while he may claim some things about you, all that does is tell me you have a past. Which I kinda figured. No one tries to be that Zen unless they’ve done some shady shit.” Zelena smiled at her daughter’s interpretation of the events. “So what’d you do? Spy? Assassin? Crime Boss?” Margot scooted closer with each suggestion. Zelena’s smile stretched wider at each crazy accusation. “Crime boss,” Margot decided after seeing her mom’s smile. “I knew it.”  
Zelena full on laughed then. “Nothing like that, but I’ll tell you soon.” Her voice turned more serious as she mentioned, “I guess this means you probably want to leave again.”  
Now it was Margot’s turn surprise her mom with, “I’m actually kind of digging Hype Town. And I met someone I wouldn’t mind sticking around for either.”  
Zelena squeezed her daughter’s hands again and with a knowing smile said, “Well I’m all for you making new friends-especially cute blonde one.”  
“Can you not jinx it? It’s still really new.” Mother and daughter were smiling and happy when Regina walked in.  
“And why are there police cars pulling up outside my bar?”


End file.
